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Written by: 8/19/2011 11:47 AM
Apparently, spam, particularly the kind with dangerous attachments or embedded links, is at a two-year high. Well, one quick glance at my inbox could have told you that—and your email accounts are probably equally cluttered with junk.
But it’s cool, right? I’ve gotten wise to all the schemes: empty promises of money and fame from overseas “friends.” Sweepstakes for a free iPad or a Hawaiian vacation or a free airline ticket or a fighter jet or who knows what. Sneaky phishing links that seem to be from my bank but are actually from a dangerous social engineer. I’ve gotten pretty good at pointing out the emails that I should not touch with a ten-foot pole. And every morning I don’t think twice about deleting dozens of emails that were dangerous. I just clear out all the junk mail first before I get to the good stuff.
Yet, despite the fact that my accounts are filling up with garbage, I was still surprised to learn that spamming is actually up. I guess I—along with a lot of other people, no doubt—have become a little jaded. But it should probably bother me more that I am a target on a daily basis. And the fact that I feel complacent about it probably means that I could soon be a victim.
According to Tim Greene at CIO.com, "After multiple recent botnet takedowns, cybercriminal groups remain resilient clearly looking to build their botnets and distribute more fake AV in the process," the company says in its blog. "It seems spammers have returned from a holiday break and are enthusiastically back to work."
Social engineers are savvier and more persistent, their scams and schemes are becoming more complex and harder to spot, and they are counting on people (like me) becoming careless.
That’s why spam is up. Because it’s still working.
Read more here: http://www.cio.com/article/688134/Report_Spam_is_At_a_Two_Year_High